[ENTRY] [LARGE] The Final Task

[YellowFrog]

  On 8/6/2024 at 2:46 PM, BardDandelion said:

In your case shark and brick separator are a bit too obvious to spot, they stand out from the whole build.

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What do you think the author can do to hide them (and fix this issue)? I was trying to think of one, but struggling.

[Autumn]

I really don't mind the shark or brick separator. I like the way they've been worked into the cliff and the contours around them are nice, it brings some variation into it. They do stand out but it's not a bad thing in my eyes. There's even a hat in there.

[BardDandelion]

@YellowFrog I'm not sure, I don't have big experience with this type of rockwork.
From what I've seen online, made by other builders, this type of wacky rockwork/landscape works if it's completely wacky - a shark, next to it elephant megablocks, upside down monster from Power Miners, some weird thing from Bionicle and so on, and so on. 

It's difficult to get it right.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/6/2024 at 3:15 AM, Horation said:

Well, I can understand not wanting to spend money to make money. But, it would indeed be quite efficient to just order a few such parts next time you buy online, as it could improve the colour consistency a little

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Honestly, I wish I had more old gray pieces rather than replacing them. I think it is good to have a bit of variety with rockwork, and you can't really mix lbg and dbg well, in my opinion. 

  On 8/6/2024 at 2:46 PM, BardDandelion said:

Interesting build, reminds me a lot of stairs to Sheloba lair from LotR.

Stairs themself are really nice, it's good that you make them uneven and skewed, climbing them feels like a real challange. :D

Not sure about the rockwork. Parts that are not bricks or slopes seems a bit off, this is not the best incorporation of weird parts into the rockwork. Sometimes even not that wacky connections do not look natural (eg. if rockwork is mostly done with slopes but then there is some big curved wedge between them). This also often happens in microscale or in greebling in space builds. In your case shark and brick separator are a bit too obvious to spot, they stand out from the whole build.

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It was indeed modeled after the steps to Cirith Ungol from LotR- you can see more about this in a previous comment here: 

  On 8/2/2024 at 11:00 PM, Math Wizard said:

Coincidentally, this was a MOC of Cirith Ungol, that I modified for this contest while I had it built. Here is the original build: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197227990@N07/53828024590/in/dateposted-public/

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Glad you like the steps! As for the odd pieces, it was mostly due to a simple lack of pieces. I was running out of gray slopes, and these pieces were all decently large and more importantly, gray. 

 

  On 8/7/2024 at 3:07 PM, BardDandelion said:

@YellowFrog I'm not sure, I don't have big experience with this type of rockwork.
From what I've seen online, made by other builders, this type of wacky rockwork/landscape works if it's completely wacky - a shark, next to it elephant megablocks, upside down monster from Power Miners, some weird thing from Bionicle and so on, and so on. 

It's difficult to get it right.

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If I had more "wacky" pieces I would. But for now its just the shark, brick separator, hat, cockpit, and large airplane bows

[Christophh]

Great rock work! I absolutely love some of these crazy angles you created and some of the part usage, for example the shark. It would be great to see a bigger MOC expansion, to see where this path is leading Steve!

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/10/2024 at 9:03 AM, Christophh said:

Great rock work! I absolutely love some of these crazy angles you created and some of the part usage, for example the shark. It would be great to see a bigger MOC expansion, to see where this path is leading Steve!

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Thanks! I would love to expand it, but I don't have the time or the parts. I was hoping to do another small build for this contest, but life has been busy and I'm starting to doubt I'll even be able to do that.

[Christophh]

  On 8/11/2024 at 6:57 PM, Math Wizard said:

Thanks! I would love to expand it, but I don't have the time or the parts. I was hoping to do another small build for this contest, but life has been busy and I'm starting to doubt I'll even be able to do that.

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That's too bad really, but I'm just to familiar with the parts problem myself. I am planning to build a small moc in the upcoming days, I hope I will have enough parts.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/12/2024 at 6:20 PM, Christophh said:

That's too bad really, but I'm just to familiar with the parts problem myself. I am planning to build a small moc in the upcoming days, I hope I will have enough parts.

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Always the bane of my builds- limited pieces! This uses just about every dbg piece I have, which is why I had to start getting creative with parts to use 

[Christophh]

  On 8/12/2024 at 10:38 PM, Math Wizard said:

Always the bane of my builds- limited pieces! This uses just about every dbg piece I have, which is why I had to start getting creative with parts to use 

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Yeah, I always try to do that aswell. Sometimes I just rip apart some of my built Lego sets to get some pieces for my MOCs. I always feel a bit guilty when I do that.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/13/2024 at 3:41 PM, Christophh said:

Yeah, I always try to do that aswell. Sometimes I just rip apart some of my built Lego sets to get some pieces for my MOCs. I always feel a bit guilty when I do that.

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I do the same. Even most MOCs don't last much longer than a month. I always feel bad, because I like to leave my builds together, but they just use so many useful pieces...

[Christophh]

  On 8/13/2024 at 9:16 PM, Math Wizard said:

I do the same. Even most MOCs don't last much longer than a month. I always feel bad, because I like to leave my builds together, but they just use so many useful pieces...

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  On 8/13/2024 at 9:16 PM, Math Wizard said:

I do the same. Even most MOCs don't last much longer than a month. I always feel bad, because I like to leave my builds together, but they just use so many useful pieces...

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What I do in those situations, i write down the parts i took out of the Lego Sets and add them to my next Pick a brick order, so that my Sets on shelves stay together. I can really recommend that, i always stay organzied that way.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/13/2024 at 10:17 PM, Christophh said:

 

What I do in those situations, i write down the parts i took out of the Lego Sets and add them to my next Pick a brick order, so that my Sets on shelves stay together. I can really recommend that, i always stay organzied that way.

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That's a good idea! While it may work for sets, I don't know if it will work for a lot of my MOCs though. Most are quite fragile and end up falling apart with just a few pieces removed. Just look at this build for an example  I often intend to "just borrow" pieces for a little bit, and then a little bit turns into a longer bit, and eventually so many pieces are missing I decide it is better to disassemble and sort than to rebuild. 

[Horation]

One trick is to learn to let go, if I haven`t touched a build in over a month, that makes it available for MOCs, but I can choose to keep it built.

Once I do touch it though, then it is fair game to demolish it...

[Christophh]

  On 8/14/2024 at 1:26 AM, Math Wizard said:

That's a good idea! While it may work for sets, I don't know if it will work for a lot of my MOCs though. Most are quite fragile and end up falling apart with just a few pieces removed. Just look at this build for an example  I often intend to "just borrow" pieces for a little bit, and then a little bit turns into a longer bit, and eventually so many pieces are missing I decide it is better to disassemble and sort than to rebuild. 

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Yeah, I get it, and sometimes the pieces are just not available on PAB and then I do the same like you do. Life as an AFOL is not always easy...

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/14/2024 at 5:35 AM, Christophh said:

Yeah, I get it, and sometimes the pieces are just not available on PAB and then I do the same like you do. Life as an AFOL is not always easy...

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AFOL life is certainly not easy- there's the constant threat of reddish brown pieces breaking, the deadlines for contests, the times when you're missing that one piece you need, etc....

The only time I really use PAB is around the holidays. I'll usually get my younger brother some specific pieces he wants, and add a few of my own to the order. 

  On 8/14/2024 at 2:18 AM, Horation said:

One trick is to learn to let go, if I haven`t touched a build in over a month, that makes it available for MOCs, but I can choose to keep it built.

Once I do touch it though, then it is fair game to demolish it...

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Sounds reasonable- usually once a certain number of pieces are missing, it basically needs taken apart since its just a mess of pieces and chunks

[Christophh]

  On 8/14/2024 at 10:46 AM, Math Wizard said:

AFOL life is certainly not easy- there's the constant threat of reddish brown pieces breaking, the deadlines for contests, the times when you're missing that one piece you need, etc....

The only time I really use PAB is around the holidays. I'll usually get my younger brother some specific pieces he wants, and add a few of my own to the order. 

Sounds reasonable- usually once a certain number of pieces are missing, it basically needs taken apart since its just a mess of pieces and chunks

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Yeah, I only purchase from PAB once or twice a year, only if there are good GWPs or double Insider/VIP points. And then I always have a long list of parts i need to add to my order just to keep up with my torn apart Lego display pieces.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/14/2024 at 11:31 AM, Christophh said:

Yeah, I only purchase from PAB once or twice a year, only if there are good GWPs or double Insider/VIP points. And then I always have a long list of parts i need to add to my order just to keep up with my torn apart Lego display pieces.

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Same. I don't usually like to spend a whole lot on LEGO, but a $20ish gift for a brother plus a $20-30 PAB order to get a $50 GWP is a good deal in my book, so those are the instances I use it. Other than that, I make do with what I have, and builds become more creative because of it!

[Christophh]

  On 8/15/2024 at 1:58 AM, Math Wizard said:

Same. I don't usually like to spend a whole lot on LEGO, but a $20ish gift for a brother plus a $20-30 PAB order to get a $50 GWP is a good deal in my book, so those are the instances I use it. Other than that, I make do with what I have, and builds become more creative because of it!

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I understand that. Tough if I make a PAB order, they're usually a bit larger, to also get those more expensive GWPs. I sell those and through that, I get a good "discount".

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/15/2024 at 10:02 PM, Christophh said:

I understand that. Tough if I make a PAB order, they're usually a bit larger, to also get those more expensive GWPs. I sell those and through that, I get a good "discount".

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Good point. I'm hoping to sell some of my GWPs and sets I won in contests in order to "discount" the price of Rivendell. Amazing set, but not really in my hobby budget 

[YellowFrog]

Too true. Sadly, Lego seems to make less good cheap sets nowadays, and all the best designers are allocated to the big sets like Rivendell.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/16/2024 at 4:22 AM, YellowFrog said:

Too true. Sadly, Lego seems to make less good cheap sets nowadays, and all the best designers are allocated to the big sets like Rivendell.

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Agreed! I became a huge Tolkien/LOTR fan after they stopped making sets. Now it is just Rivendell and Barad Dur, which are both enormous and expensive. It would be nice if they made more smaller LOTR/Hobbit sets too.

[Horation]

Well, as the devil's advocate, I have to ask if you'd rather pay 500 bucks for 1 small retired set or the same amount for 1 large still produced set... 

I'd love it if they still made some cheaper ones, too (especially some battlepacks).

 

Edited August 17, 2024 by Horation

[YellowFrog]

  On 8/17/2024 at 1:56 AM, Horation said:

I'd love it if they still made some cheaper ones, too (especially some battlepacks).

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Indeed, battle packs were great. Perhaps what Lego needs is the world's biggest (or close to biggest) Lego forum to tell them what we want...

My solution to this is building MOCs inspired by the sets I don't have. As long as I have close-enough minifigures then it works fine.

Edited August 17, 2024 by YellowFrog

[Andy-Roo]

A very skillful build and the rockwork is impressive on how it all fits together.

The only thing that would be good would be some sort of contrast to help the build stand out. It seems that the rockface is supposed to be part of a larger mountain but perhaps a combination of some dark grey sections and some foliage would help accent this.

[Math Wizard]

  On 8/29/2024 at 5:46 AM, Andy-Roo said:

A very skillful build and the rockwork is impressive on how it all fits together.

The only thing that would be good would be some sort of contrast to help the build stand out. It seems that the rockface is supposed to be part of a larger mountain but perhaps a combination of some dark grey sections and some foliage would help accent this.

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Thanks! I'm quite happy with how all the angles lined up (eventually). I agree about your critique- I didn't really realize it until other critics pointed it out, but If I were to re-do this build it would definitely have foliage included.